Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi!
The wingin’ it session was really interesting! She was totally correct for almost all of it, but she had a question on the soft turn from wing to wing every time (looked at you). Your connection, motion, etc were all good, so my guess is that she is just super used to wrapping wings and the soft turns were weirder.
But then on the 2nd to last rep, you had a tiny disconnect (shoulder forward so connection broke) and she didn’t take the wing. With that rep being wrong, it was clarifying for her so she had zero questions on that last rep! Sometimes an error is very helpful 🙂She was very good at reading you in the lazy game!
>For the lazy game, there were a few times when she would cut the middle jump. Am I moving too quickly away from her or just not supporting the jump?>
What happened there (like at :14 on the video) was that your arm was pointing to the middle jump but your feet and shoulders had turned to the next jump, so she went with feet & shoulders. Compare that to the successful reps where you faced the middle jump as she was exiting tue previous jump, so she took it every time (feet and shoulders supported it). So using less arm cue and more connection will help your feet & shoulders find show the line.
She did great with the plank on the angle! Maybe when it was too flat, it didn’t appear to be something to interact with. She seemed very confident here! You can also get a longer plank and put blocks under it so it is a foot off the ground, and have her hop on and off in the middle – i like to teach young dogs to get off the DW if they lose their balance.
Great job here!
Tracy
That’s so funny that watching Benni gets him pumped up for the wobble board! Dogs are definitely competitive!
He did great with the teeter games. Slamming it was easy, so it was good to shift to backing up. You can now add being more patient to let him immediately get all 4 feet on when he backs up. We will be adding more soon!
The wobbly plank was perfect! He really had to work his balance in the position changes and running across it was easy. If possible, get him on as many different planks and teeter bottoms as possible now, in different places 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
The one steps sends looked great – she is committing really well! Nice job with your verbals here too. Look at her speed, commitment and tight turn on that 2nd to last rep: PERFECT! She had a small question on the last rep – it was the only rep where you did not make connection as she exited the tunnel, so she checked in with you. Definitely keep that connection there.
2nd video – She did well here too! You can start your turns a step sooner on that middle jump. Since she is committed well, you can start the FC when he is halfway between the 2 wings for now. Also, you can keep the toy in your pocket for now. She is moving really fast and you had some hand switching with the toy which delays cues. Since we don’t need a precision reward here, you can keep the toy in a pocket and whip it out at the end.
I will translate what she was saying when she got BIG MAD at 1:33. She said that you were not connected, she was correct, and you should not have stopped 🙂 She is right 🙂 She gives excellent feedback LOL! So keep going and reward the next thing, because stopping and withdrawing the toy reads as a punishment for her being wrong. For the sends, use a little less arm swooshing and more eye contact, then it should be very smooth and easy 🙂
She did well slamming the teeter here. You were waiting her to get into a 4on position – is that your desired end position for the teeter? I like 2o2o for the big dogs better because it is clearer for the dogs, easier to maintain, faster, and promotes a good weight shift 🙂
She did super well on the plank! Running across it was easy and fun 🙂 And she thought really hard about keeping all her feet on while turning around. SUPER! I think she and her sister have the same homework here: let’s elevate the plank more so that there is a little more challenge to get on it and turn around. Are there blocks that you can use so the plank is less than a foot off the ground but still stable so it doesn’t move from under them?
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
This was a great rocking horse session outside! The cool weather definitely helps! I think he is showing us a slight left turn preference here – whenever he has a question, he offers something about the left turn 🙂 There were 2 moments where you were cueing a right turn where he wanted to offer a left turn:
At :14, he went almost to the barrel then checked in… and when you went to reset he took that as a backwards send to the left turn 🙂
And when you were not quite connected at :28 and sent a little too soon, he wanted to go do a left turn on the other barrel 🙂 You re-sent him and he did get it, good boy! But he doesn’t need that big connection for the left turn reps, so for the right turns you can be sure to help him out with more connection and staying a little closer to the barrel for now.
I think he is understanding the parallel path concept really well so far – towards the end he was driving ahead of you nicely!! The next steps are to add more distance, but getting the technical details sorted out will make that all easier:
>Would it be acceptable to use a wingless jump that has a bar as a cross-brace between the 2 uprights that sits on the ground?>
I think it would work! The cross-brace is a good visual kind of like a jump bar but he doesn’t really have to jump it, if I am visualizing it correctly.
You can also put weights on the feet of the wings here so they don’t fall over. I stuff sand into old socks to use as jump weights. I used to live in the mountains where the wings would get blown over all the time and the sand socks were lifesavers 🙂
>I tried showing him the lotus ball but he did not like having to work for his treat! DIVA!>
Ha! I can see his argument though – lotus balls work best for dogs with long pointy noses (like Shelties) that can shove their nose in and open the ball up. He would have to shove his face and eyeballs in. So what if we did a treat hugger? He can just pluck the treat out of it. Or does he like Kong toys? You can put a little tiny bit of cream cheese in it and he can lick it out – plus Kongs are easy to throw and very visible.
He was HILARIOUS at the beginning of the running contact box session: stared at it, calculated… then threw himself into it. I almost snorted coffee out of my nose. Then it was game on, no questions.
Since he did great, you can shift to the next level: use a ‘get it’ marker and throw the rewards rather than reward in the box. That way we get him moving back and forth through it.
Great job here!
Tracy
Hello!
>And I realised I need to do some nice backwards and forwards pattern games BEFORE I train in hard environments.>
Yes! The mental warm up is critical for the dogs so the pattern games are super helpful to bring him to new environments. And it also tells you if he is having a hard time processing the environment or not, based on how quickly he can engage.
>I also thought that o need to start my “warm-up” sequence, making that part of the training routine. (Not that barry has all the warm-up tricks yet but should start now)>Yes to this too! A couple of tricks after the pattern game are great for the mental warm up and engagement.
These will be adding time to the session and can also tire the brain out… so definitely do them and the training session that follows them should be short! Less than 10 quick reps, then take a break.
And of course, you can just do the mental warm ups as the session itself, then take a break. The more we get into the habit of doing this, the easier it is to bring the pups into new environments and get engagement quickly.
>Baby Barry is definitely struggling more than he did before he got hit with adolescence stick.>
It might indeed be a bit of adolescence, but it might also be that the games are getting harder while the environment is also really hard.
One thing to consider is when using a hard location, then game should be easy 🙂 That creates a nice balance of success: when something is hard, everything else should be easy. I also like games that have a lot of movement for the dogs – it helps them have fun and stay engaged.
The strike a pose game with the MM on the ground was a bit hard so having it get easier with the mat for the treat and you being stationary at the end was the best way to break it down. That is where he was very successful and you can easily reset if there was a blooper. That part of the session went on for over 2 minutes and he lost engagement by the end – lots of brain juice is used in hard environments so a very short session is definitely useful.
Earlier in the strike a pose session, he came in tugging really well (yay!) but then moving directly into the stay and ignoring the environment/Manners Minder etc was really hard – plus if the info was unclear and he didn’t get rewarded, he lost a bit of focus and that is when he took off.
For the out game – he did best when your outside arm pointed more to the prop. He nailed those reps! Yay! And letting him run with the toy was a nice way to balance out the ‘control’ of the stays and the lead changes. He had an error when you did the balance rep… but he had just done a ton of get outs so I can see why he went to the prop. So mix in the balance reps sooner in the session so he doesn’t think it is all about the prop.
By the end, the cues were less clear so he was not having as much success… definitely set that timer so you can be done in about 2 minutes before you both get brain tired 🙂
Nice job here! Let me know how he does adding the mental warm ups!
Tracy
Good morning! He is really looking fast and fun – you are going. to have a blast running courses with him!
The parallel path is going really well! He was finding the jump brilliantly and going faster and faster. Yay!
Two things you can add to this – throw the reward sooner (mark and throw when you see him lock onto the jump but before he gets to the jump) . And use your ‘get it’ marker so he knows to look forward and not at you.
You can definitely keep adding lateral distance, as well as sometimes staying close to him so he drives ahead of you (which makes rear crosses even easier :))
Backing up is going really well! He is definitely adding more steps and getting the idea – it is a hard skill for sure.
You can add two things to this now too: a slightly higher back-up-destination so he has to step up onto it. I think something that is 2 or 3 inches tall will be perfect, because it gives him something to step up onto. And, keep adding distance!He seemed to be very engaged with figuring out the stays! And that is what we want: a pup that LOVES learning to stay 🙂 He was holding it for a couple of steps, so you can keep ping-ponging the number of steps you take as you move away. Sometimes reward him immediately, sometimes get 3 steps, sometimes 1 steps, sometimes 2 steps and so on. Pretty soon he will just hold the stay for a zillion steps 🙂
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
You made great time getting home! Feels like a month flew by! I bet you are glad to be out of all of that bad weather.This was a really nice session of backing up to get him back into the groove of your training sessions. He was backing up brilliantly on the flat! When the board was a little less angled at the beginning, he was also easily able to step back onto it. His form changed when the board got higher – it was harder to get his back feet all the way up. It also shifts a lot of weight into his shoulders at that height, which we should avoid at this stage (shoulders are delicate flowers LOL!) So you can keep the board lower but add challenge by giving him something low to step over on the way to the board. What are the guide poles made of? They are the right size to have him step over, if you have more of them.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>It was going really well, until it wasn’t ;). A couple came through the confined area we were in and rode their motorized scooters within about 2 feet of us. Absolutely their right, but Macklynn flipped out. It took us a while to reset, calm down, and get a few positive reps in before leaving.>
Yikes, that sounds so hard! I think MOST dogs would have had a BIG struggle with that. All of my adolescent dogs would have freaked out too – surprise and noise and weird moving things. Poor Macklynn!!! I am glad she was able to reset.
The get out game went really well! She was really good about going to it on cue and NOT going to it when you didn’t cue it. The balance reps were really funny because while she didn’t change her lead to go to the prop, she definitely did look at you like you had forgotten to tell her to go to it LOL!!
On the reps where she was cued to get out, she did really well with changing her lead and you were good about maintaining the criteria of hitting the prop. Super!
The shpile was great – the pile itself was had all sorts of different stuff and was a bit unstable. Perfect! It had enough challenge that she had to think about getting her hind end on without being too hard.
She did well staying coordinated and offering behavior, even with the added arousal of all the toy play breaks. SUPER!!! And I love love love when a Border Collie can eat treats and play tug in the same session. That can be a challenge for a lot of BCs and she is great with it! For future shpile games, you can keep switching up the pile and adding more things that move.
Yay for backing up! Definite progress here!! You have been working it in small increments and that really shows – she is doing really well! The good reps (there were plenty of good reps!) had lovely form so you can keep gradually moving away from the mat to add more distance while maintaining the form.
>I may need to bungee my hands to my sides so I stop accidentally asking for a ‘sit’ >
Ha! Yes – I think keeping your hands by your knees will keep her from looking up. And when she looks up, it shifts her weight into her rear more, which stops the movement and produces the sit. You can lean over to keep your hands there, or sit on something 🙂
The rocking horse game went great! I think both of you like getting to move more! During the in-between moments after a reward and before the next rep, I think she didn’t know what to do with herself so she was pacing around a bit. You can ask her to line up at your side (a cookie will work for that) so you can have a clean smooth start. Nice job fixing the little connection bloopers – when you were not quite connected, she ended up on the wrong side of the barrel. And she really loved the ‘turn and burn’ exits where you ran away with the toy!
>Very slowly adding distance on this – I initially added a bit too much and she didn’t want to play.>
Yes, keep adding distance. She was happy to play here, so if she turns off for some reason, add more connection and you can also add more motion of running towards the barrels a bit – I think that will be fun for you both!
Great job here!
Tracy
Hi –
>s the wing a game to level one lol I just skipped it because I figured it was too easy. Ha ha.>
ha! It is actually really hard – you have to be at the tunnel exit and send to the wing with one step. And the timing of the FCs plus the exit line connections are hard!
Thank you on the sits.
>It tends to be more on the lateral lead outs so is there something I can do to help him with that like let’s say he does move his feet what is my best response to help him with that without being punitive and causing stress on his start line. >
The number 1 rule is: Don’t fight with the dog.
So with that in mind, for the lateral lead outs – play with what works better for him. Leading out straight then moving over? Or moving over, then leading out up the line? Either way, glue your eyes to his feet and throw the reward back before he moves. And if it is an on going thing, change the position to one where you won’t fight with him about it 🙂
And always watch his feet on the lead out so you can be consistent with feedback about foot movement.
Let me know how he does!
Tracy
Hi!
Looking at the layering: I think the new trend on courses in UKI, ISC, etc is for the dog to choose the far line (and layer) unless very specifically asked to come in. So I think for Lift and Kaladin you can almost overbalance these so the extension line is the default unless you give super big cues for coming in like for the serp. A year ago I would have said it was more of a 50-50 balance, but I think it is more like 75-25 in favor of the extension line now.
So on Lift’s video – she found the layered line really well! I think there was only one little blooper and that was when the cue. To stay out was a little quieter than the other reps. And you can start to fade out the ‘out’ cue too (verbal and arm!) in favor of her just assuming to stay on the big extension line when there is no lead change away.
Then, for the coming in to serp: as she is approaching the start wing, you can be giving really big cues for “do NOT stay on the big extension line” LOL!!On Kaladin’s video:
You can overbalance into the layering with him too! With both dogs, you can use bigger more urgent verbals to get them to come in on the line – you were pretty quiet 🙂
>He knows “switch” is flip away and layer in extension. >
I love this cue! It has saved my butt several times 🙂 He nailed it! You said & did the ‘out’ cues after he was already on his way to the extension line.
>And then the rep where he thought I meant serp but the eyes of desperation and the get out got him to turn back out again.>
On that one, it was hard to hear the verbals on the wings – both dogs might think that quiet voice is the cue to come in to the serp? So when you were quiet there, Kaladin thought serp! Then he was a good boy to immediately respond to the out cues. Yay! The out cue was a little late on the next rep but he got it – the timing was spot on for the last rep, and he nailed it!
>the eyes of desperation>
I think the next time I do a connection seminar, I will be adding “eyes of desperation” to the agenda because it works for well hahaha!!!
>Question on the inside open arm threadle slice. What is the difference for the dog between that and coming in over a serp? >
The verbal and position on course are different, of course, but the arm cues are different in terms of movement: for the threadle, I swing my arm back. Jenny Damm calls it “open the door” and I love that! For a serp, my arm is extended but locked and doesn’t swing back.
Speaking of the dog-side arm winging back: that is was happening on the backside video reps where he took the font side (like at :05 and :22). As he exits the wing, the first thing he saw was the dog side arm swing back, so he came in towards the front of the jump.
When the dog side arm was more relaxed/didn’t swing back and the opposite arm is pointing to the exit wing, he got it really well (like at :29 and :45)!
When your dog side shoulder was so relaxed that it blocked connection, he was not as sure (1:27) but he knew to NOT take the front side.
OMG the snow is Lift’s video! Ugh!
>The last one at 1:20 was better where you can see the opposite arm extending across and in front of me pointing to the entry wing.>
Yes! That is the key: when your outside arm pointed to the entry wing, she found the backside nicely!
She had more questions when the outside arm was pointing to the exit wing – with you moving away from the camera, we should actually be able to see it sticking out ahead of you. The rep at 1:20ish was the best one in terms of that!
She did find the backside well on plenty of other reps – those also had a bit of convergence towards the backside which helped too.
>The rep where she shot way out of the camera frame was where she thought it was a get out and that I wanted her to go wrap the 2 wings I’d pulled off to the side from the previous layering exercise.>
Awwww good girl!!!
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Super nice one step sends! The first video went really well, she was finding the line to the wing really well.On the 2nd video, she investigated something off to the side on the first rep but no worries – the post turn handling kind of shows that line to baby dogs 🙂 She was perfect after that!
On the FCs on the wing – nice job with the timing!!
When you added the middle wing, she found it really well so you can also add in earlier FCs by moving up the line to the wing after the tunnel then doing the one step send to the middle wing. And when she locks onto it: FC before she is halfway to it.
The plank confident looked great! You can break it up with tugging after every couple of reps, that will both keep her thinking a about her feets in higher arousal and keep her excited so she doesn’t visit the videographer 🙂
You can elevate the plank a little more to add more challenge too!
She really understood the assignment with turning around and worked her butt off to keep all 4 feet on the board! Good girlie!! Having her move slowly really helped because she didnt rush the footwork. Thus is something to keep revisiting here and there on a low plank, til it is easy peasy and she can do it fast 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
> It’s frustrating as I asked our vet, when we went in for the X-rays to assess with her laying down, and the vet insisted that her physical exam (with Jazz standing) was sufficient.>
Yes, frustrating! But also, the OFA exam for patellas is a standing exam… so Hot Sauce would have had clear, good patellas according to OFA. But the reality is that Hot Sauce was grade 2ish on her left side and grade 1ish on her right side.
The exam was done by a board certified Orthopedic vet who also does high level dog sports. She was shocked to hear that it was a patella and now examines dogs on their side, not standing.
It might not be a patella issue at all, but all of the sports vets tell us that if there is a weird soft tissue ouch in a young dog that is not a traumatic injury (like falling off a dog walk), then it might be the knee or something else.
>She doesn’t seem to have any hesitation about running across this. >
No hesitation at all! She was very confident and when you went fast, she got even faster. FUN!!!
Question – have you decided if you want running or stopped contacts on her dog walk? She wad going fast and leaping off the end, so i figure we should start contact training soon to show her what you want on the end of the board.
Also, you can elevate the board a bit, if you have blocks that can keep it stable and a few inches off the ground. That will help turning around on the board, because she will really feel the difference between stepping off the board and staying on it. You can move your hand really slowly for now with the turning around.
> I considered using one from my DW but I think there would be a gap on each end due to how the DW is constructed. Is that OK? Should I stuff something in there?>
I think the plank you used here is great, or you can use a DW plank because we are going to elevate it a little which should take care of the gap issue? If there is still a gap or any spot where she might get a foot or toe caught, you can stuff a towel in it or even cover it with duct tape.
>We also played with the teeter bang game – no video here as I clearly need to go back to backing on a board.< Maybe her psoas was bugging her and inhibiting backing up? Have her just hit it with front feet for now, without the board moving, and let's see what she says. >Additional challenge is that my treatment will most likely be in San Diego (4-6 weeks) and her treatment is in Sacramento. >
Are you staying in San Diego, maybe bringing her with you? Maybe she can get treated there? But I’m pretty sure the first part of her treatment will be fine and still very helpful if she has limited physical activity – you can add “at home” stuff like a PEMF bed or assissi loop. Your treatment first, then her treatment!
>What treatment did you follow with Hot Sauce?>
Bearing in mind that this was happening during the covid lockdown in 2020:
Rest, limited movement to rest the psoas, lots of leash walks (and a patella repair because the patella was the underlying cause)Meds! I think NSAIDs and a muscle relaxer but I will have to dig up the records.
Laser!
PEMF and assisi loop (i did these at home)
Massage 🙂
Therapeutic ultrasound
We didn’t do Shockwave (maybe we did it once?) but that was only because it was a brand new modality and my rehab vet was just getting into it as Hot Sauce was finishing her treatment. I’m sure we’d use it now if she needed it nowadays.
And a lot of it was guided remotely by Dr. Leslie Eide, a sports vet who also does agility located in Washington State. She was amazing!
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Excellent!! She figured this out really quickly!
Your timing of the clicks were really good, getting more and more of her back feet on.
And the placement of the manners minder was an added bonus: she had to wobble to board more to go get it 🙂The next step is to move it to a floor where it might make a little noise when she moves it…to keep her happy with it, stuff towels under it at the beginning so we introduce more sound with it being too startling.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
She did great with the lazy games!!
She had lovely commitment on the first one, without you needing to do much at all 🙂 I was going to bug you to remember to use “get it” for the cookie throws, but then you used it in the send video so I won’t bug you lol
The sends on the 2nd video were terrific! She was committing really well AND she was sorting out the striding to make a tight turn. At one point you sent with the “wrong” leg but she got it anyway – that’s why we train these games for commitment, so we don’t need to be perfect 😀
She was terrific with the 3rd level, adding the tunnel. You were so funny – it was going well so you added in going fast! She was like HECK YEAH and went to a new level of speed while maintaining her commitment and striding. SO FUN!!!
Great job! You can add more distance but also, new handling games are coming soon so you can look at the wing games too.
Tracy
Good morning!
The lazy game went really well! Your connection and verbals were all spot on. Her line finding was great! She was having a little trouble with the soft turn on the pinwheel jump- ticking it. She had one rep to her left where she hit it but I think she just slipped in the dirt.
So for the soft turns – she is definitely sorting out the striding but we can help! When she is taking the jump after the tunnel, do everything you were doing and add in cueing with both hands. The outside arm is a brake arm that adds a touch more collection cue, and is very useful for these soft turns.And you can play with adding more distance between obstacles 🙂 more games coming soon!
Super nice job with the wingin’ it games! Yay! She did well finding the wing on the one step sends, and also had great commitment on the wraps & soft turns.
Because her commitment looked so strong, your FC timing can be earlier. On the soft turns (FC on the middle wing), you can send her to it more as you also decelerate. Then you can begin the FC when she is halfway to that wing. And if that is easy for her, you can start it when she exits the previous wing and locks onto the middle wing.
For the FCs on the wraps, you can decelerate as you send her, then rotate when she is maybe halfway to the wing too. You can keep getting earlier based on how she commits.She was surprised by the first tunnel threadle then got it really well on the next rep. Yay! You can use a wrap verbal on the wing before it – is think you were using the soft turn verbal? And then keep moving to tunnel entry you want and let her flip herself back to it, so you won’t have to worry about timing that cue 🙂
Great job here!
Tracy
